William Penn was expelled from Oxford University in 1661 because of his Puritan leanings. He joined the Quakers in 1664. Penn began to preach and write and was imprisoned in 1668. While jailed, he composed No Cross, No Crown, a classic of religious devotion. In 1676 he became one of the owners of West Jersey, and five years later, with 11 other Quakers, the owners of East Jersey.
Because of a debt owed Penn's father by King Charles II, William was given a territory named Pennsylvania for his father. The following year, 1682, the Duke of York (later King James II) added the area later known as Delaware. Penn's plan of government and the early laws he proposed for Pennsylvania guaranteed settlers an elective assembly, religious freedom for all believers, and traditional English liberties. Only murder and treason would be considered capital crimes.
On his first visit to America in 1682, he helped plan Philadelphia, met with natives, and established the basis of peaceful relations.